Modern Computer Based Recording Studio With Cubase

You are welcome B. Yes, RME HDSPe AIO | That would, I am sure be the answer to your latency problems, in fact I am pretty sure THAT is the card that TAFKAT (SoS forum) uses as his baseline latency control and I fairly sure nothing has beaten it so far!

Since you already have the ZED10 I am sure it will marry up with that card beautifully (and you should be able to calibrate the ZED's LED meters with the OP level of the card? Something I cannot do with my mixer into a 2496). You would be future proof needing only an ADAT pre amp to gain another 8 inputs. The Mkll Behringer unit is said to be pretty good.

Dave.

Yeah I see what you mean, but you can also buy analogue expansion boards for it that slot into your PC, but I think it will be a while before I can record a full drum kit again. So that's a way in the future.

Good, looks like I've got something to aim to. I can build a cheap PC for around £200, but would rather build a more midranged PC so this is going to cost me around £800 I think.
 
Thanks for that. I'm trying to understand why latency is giving you so much grief, and that's eliminated one area.

Are you using VST instruments for your sounds, or something else?

Actually, what would be good is a description of your typical process. I'm not yet convinced that the 10ms latency of the Zed is the culprit.

I say this because I got my firepod some years ago now, set it up and started recording with no problems. I didn't even think to question its default settings. Sometime later I noticed that the default was 9.6ms, and I've never bothered changing it. When recording I sometimes go for direct monitoring. At other times I use software monitoring, because I like to hear it with the assortment of effects I'm adding via plug in.

Yeah, I use VST instruments and effects. I don't have much studio outboard now. I enjoy hearing exactly what is recording, as I can add little bits and peaces to the sound I wouldn't normally be able to do with a dry signal.

I've also tried the ASIO4all driver as well as the original manufacturers drivers - not windows generic of course, but I still have quite a noticeable delay. I've mucked around with buffer sizes of course and it's either made things unrecordable due to errors or cut out the audio completely in part.

---------- Update ----------

Thanks for that. I'm trying to understand why latency is giving you so much grief, and that's eliminated one area.

Are you using VST instruments for your sounds, or something else?

Actually, what would be good is a description of your typical process. I'm not yet convinced that the 10ms latency of the Zed is the culprit.

I say this because I got my firepod some years ago now, set it up and started recording with no problems. I didn't even think to question its default settings. Sometime later I noticed that the default was 9.6ms, and I've never bothered changing it. When recording I sometimes go for direct monitoring. At other times I use software monitoring, because I like to hear it with the assortment of effects I'm adding via plug in.

Yeah, I use VST instruments and effects. I don't have much studio outboard now. I enjoy hearing exactly what is recording, as I can add little bits and peaces to the sound I wouldn't normally be able to do with a dry signal.

I've also tried the ASIO4all driver as well as the original manufacturers drivers - not windows generic of course, but I still have quite a noticeable delay. I've mucked around with buffer sizes of course and it's either made things unrecordable due to errors or cut out the audio completely in part.
 
"but I think it will be a while before I can record a full drum kit again. So that's a way in the future." Oh I don't know B?
The Behringer ADA8200 run out about $200 (£160) and plenty of "pros" admit to using one (and I bet many more do and don't ISWIM!) Drums are loud and so you don't need Grace pre amps even with dymos and in any case the ADA pre amps are said to be er, "very ok" .

As for the PC I doubt you need anything TOO potent? Not as though you will be running shedloads of FX on oodles of tracks in real time? In any case I would think that RME card would carry quite a bit of the load? Remember, its PCI forerunner was used way back when PCs were not the Deep Thought peeps seem to have in studios these days. I would bet my 50 quid Asus MOBO with AMD Black 3G 6core would hiss all over what you want to do at the moment and that whole build, including the graph card I had to buy, came in well under £200.

Dave.
 
"but I think it will be a while before I can record a full drum kit again. So that's a way in the future." Oh I don't know B?
The Behringer ADA8200 run out about $200 (£160) and plenty of "pros" admit to using one (and I bet many more do and don't ISWIM!) Drums are loud and so you don't need Grace pre amps even with dymos and in any case the ADA pre amps are said to be er, "very ok" .

As for the PC I doubt you need anything TOO potent? Not as though you will be running shedloads of FX on oodles of tracks in real time? In any case I would think that RME card would carry quite a bit of the load? Remember, its PCI forerunner was used way back when PCs were not the Deep Thought peeps seem to have in studios these days. I would bet my 50 quid Asus MOBO with AMD Black 3G 6core would hiss all over what you want to do at the moment and that whole build, including the graph card I had to buy, came in well under £200.

Dave.

I'm sure mate, that's why I'm budgeting to three-hundred quid for the desktop build. It's a little annoying i have to go haswell, because I want to use win seven. Also, if it was based on skylake and kabylake I could build a computer that was quite a bit faster but it would be cheaper - but they both only support windows ten. AMD? Don't trust their processors after having so many problems in the past.
 
Well ok Brian, you will know vastly more than I about computers. I am just an old (71) valve jockey who dabbles late in life.

The AMD was just an example. I would bet an i5 would be easily good enough..Shoot! I bet a main frame version of this 2x2.4G HP i3 laptop would give you a good go! Runs 20 tracks of Cubase back at about 50% CPU hit.

Don't desert HR but you really ought to pop over to Sound on Sound forum and have a chat with Pete of Scan fame.

Dave.
 
Err? Don't get it, I thought you could run Win 7 on anything? As I said, I am NO computer guru!

Dave.
 
Me, not caring about the latest & greatest, I often carefully & selectively buy used gear. I bought an older Tascam FW-1082 for $150 & a Tascam FW-1884 for $100 (Firewire based interface/mixer/controllers). These things were well over $1000 when new. Not that I'm recommending these interfaces for anyone else, but just that I got great deals on them was my point and I am happy with using them. You may want to look at buying a used RME interface maybe, then you'll still be getting great quality & low latency drivers. Or buy one brand new and spend a lot more.

As for computers, I've always built my own PC's. But this last time I took a chance, and at a recommendation, I bought an off-lease 'Work Station' type PC. Just this past year I bought an older Lenovo ThinkStation D-20, which came with two 6-core Xeon CPU's @3.06 GHz, 48 GB ram, Win 7 64 bit installed (with reinstall disk), 1100 watt power supply, and two 1TB 7200 RPM HDD's. The Lenovo cost me about $600 w/shipping. I couldn't even THINK about building a powerful PC like this at that price, not even with all used parts! I bought an SSD and use it for my OS/Programs drive, and use the 2 HDD's it came with as my Audio & Samples HDD's respectively.
The PC's I was interested in, were all older, high end Work Station type PC's, which aren't the typical off-the-shelf stuff, and are made for more serious work. I was looking at Lenovo ThinkStation D-20, HP Z800, Dell Precision T5500. They mostly come with Xeon's @2 to 3.4 Ghz per core (either quad or 6-core, with either single or dual CPU's installed). 800 too 1100 watt power supply, 8 to 96 GB ram, Win 7 64 bit or Win 10 64 bit. and various configurations of HDD's and/or SSD. There are of course other models of the same brands above, and can range in price from around $200 to $1,700 or more generally. Even at the cheapest prices of $200-$300 for used/off-lease systems...for which you'd likely get just one CPU, 8 to 12 GB ram, Windows 7 64 bit, and one or 2 HDD's, you can't go wrong.
These type of 12 core Work Station PC's with absurd amounts of ram, originally sold for about $3K to $4K.
I also bought an unused/sealed previously purchased copy of Cubase 8 Pro for $300 for my 12 core PC (same price as Cubase Artist!). Everything I got was at among the best deals available, and previously purchased/used. Being I'm not a pro for hire, I don't have/need to buy brand-new with warranties etc. If I can build my own PC, I can fix what may go wrong at some point.

Anyway, just my 2 cents food for thought on the above.
 
No, kabylake and skylake don't support Win seven. You might be fortunate enough to install that operating system with them but you'll no doubt have difficulty installing drivers etc.

Don't worry about more... vintage equipment - I love it. Two of my most prized possessions - Fender twin reverb silverface, I think it's from the nineteen-seventies, and a fostex r-eight reel to reel.

Be aware, I'm not using numbers because my number keys are broken :D
 
Hi lads, good news - I built my DAW, and it is working great with really good low latency - all I ever wanted really.

However, I'm now having problems with using the Zed 10 mixer. I don't know what's going on with it, but I've used plenty of mixers in the past with cubase, but this takes the biscuit and I'm starting to feel very very stupid because it's a small mixer, I mean I've even used a Yamaha 02r for a while and not had problems.

Anyway, problem is I am getting a very low signal no matter what I do with the mixer.

Now, I do a pre-fade listen, and I was always taught to get the signal to around -3 at most, so I do that but when i see it in my RME TotalMix software I'm only getiting -13. I have no idea what's going on because my channel level is at 0 and my main mix level is at 0.

I have the RME card connected to the record out, and to the playback in. All Faders in the RME TotalMix software are at 0 or if not used all the way down to infinity.
 
The ZEDs have a button at the back that chops the XLR main outs from +4dBu to mic level to feed another set of mic inputs.
Check that out.

Dave.
 
Just in addition, I want to say something doesn't seem quite right at all here.

Had my computer music going through a stereo one channel no aux or fx, record or listen button not selected, all buttons out, just that channel gain, level, main mix, and monitor level at zero - it is being sent out on the record out channel! WTF?

As soon as I hit record a channel should be sent to the record outs - surely that is it. Unless I can find a solution I'm going to have to use this zed ten as an input mixer and cable my monitors, and headphones directly to the mixer for monitoring.

So shit. :mad:
 
I'm using the RCA record outs mate.

On the signal diagram for my ZED-10FX (16 bit USB) those RCAs are fed from the Record bus and are independent of the Main Output level control. They are actually the signal that goes directly into the USB A/D.

There are other output possibilities. The main XLRs are "impedance" balanced and therefore a female XLR to RCA adaptor could be used. The main op inserts could be used and are pre Main level pot but you would need to make up special cables.

Dave.
 
On the signal diagram for my ZED-10FX (16 bit USB) those RCAs are fed from the Record bus and are independent of the Main Output level control. They are actually the signal that goes directly into the USB A/D.

There are other output possibilities. The main XLRs are "impedance" balanced and therefore a female XLR to RCA adaptor could be used. The main op inserts could be used and are pre Main level pot but you would need to make up special cables.

Dave.

Do you not think it sounds like there's something wrong with my mixer? I did have a look at the schematic, and agree as soon as I hit record on one of the input channels it should mute it from the main mix and send it out from the record outs.

I need this type of functionality, because I use the mixer as a hub for both inputs and outputs. For example if I want to just jam to an external audio source without the need of turning on the daw.
 
"........ just jam to an external audio source without the need of turning on the daw. " Like a pod or phone? They could go into Playback input jacks which feeds the L/R busses and thus ultimately Main L/R out on XLR but there is a post Main Level pot feed to the monitor outs and cans.

I doubt the mixer is faulty. I would print out the block diagram and have it to hand as you work through the routing. It might also be helpful to draw out exactly what you want to feed in and where and post a copy.

Dave.
 
Back
Top